Studies have shown that the most prevalent area for germs in a school setting is the cafeteria table. Some bacteria are capable of causing infections and tend to collect on frequently touched surfaces, particularly in areas where there is a lot of hand-to-mouth contact like the cafeteria table. When children touch the contaminated surface, the germs are transmitted to their hands, and if they subsequently touch their eyes, nose or lips, it is likely that they have infected themselves. The best way to avoid the spreading of germs is to never touch infected surfaces.
Lunch boxes have long been known and widely used by children all over the world. The majority of lunch boxes used today are not washable and, therefore, cannot be properly sanitized. The combination of the unclean lunch boxes and germ-infested, cafeteria tables provides an ideal scenario for spreading germs.
Therefore, there is a particular need to overcome the problems discussed above by reducing the amount of germs a child comes into contact with while having a meal away from home, such as, but not limited to, having lunch at a school cafeteria table. The disclosed embodiments are directed to the above-noted problems. However, the disclosed embodiment is neither limited to use by children, nor is limited to use as a placemat in a school cafeteria.